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Friday, 8 November 2013

Tournament game 3: Eldar vs Daemons/chaos 1850 'death from the sky'

The third and final game of my tournament, so far I am 1 win and 1
loss so I need this game to be good one. I am drawn up against a chaos daemons
army with chaos space marine allies, I can only describe it as a flying circus,
and I have never played against such a list before so it was definitely an
interesting experience. The mission was 6 objectives and I was rather worried.

This list has 4 flying daemon princes, a great unclean one AND a
heldrake. Again, my list isn’t great against flyers so this could be an issue,
but at least I can attempt to down them with shots first. Lets see how it goes.

The Mission

This game is very simple, 6 objectives all placed on the deployment
lines, so you are going to have to move over the table to prevent a draw. Each
objective is 3 points each plus slay the warlord and line breaker.

My opponent won the roll for both deployment zones and then I place
down my defence line. I think I learnt from my last game, originally wanted to
place the defence line in the centre of the table but I changed my mind as the
last second and placed it in the right hand corner. It had good line of sight
everywhere but forward. It could be an issue as he will probably set up behind
the line of sight blocking terrain but if he did I would be able to out run his
princes and out shoot him.

He did as expected and placed his daemon princes behind the line of
sight blocking terrain, placed the cultists in the middle of the table on an
objective and to my surprise the greater daemon went on the far left with a
unit of plague bearers. He left a unit of plague bearers in reserve to deep
strike in, heldrake in reserve as well.

I deployed the war walkers, dark reapers and hawks behind the defence
line. The tanks went in the centre so I can manoeuvre as needed. I left the
rangers in reserve to out flank.

Deployment

Steal the Initiative: Didn’t try

Night Fight: No

The Battle

Daemon turn 1

The first act of the game is a daemon prince attempting to weaken a
rival princes bond to the mortal plain and uses its true name to weaken it.
Both princes with iron arm cast it and one gets +1 strength and toughness, the
other gets +3! All of the princes take to the sky and fly straight towards the
defence line, the weakened prince stays at the back, the prince with the grimnoire is at the front and the two iron arms are on the left. The rest stays still.

Papa nurgle blesses the battle field with rot and 2 warp spiders die to
his contagion. He casts puppet master on the dark reapers but the farseer
denies the warp spawn his amusement. Another prince casts smite on the reapers
but the farseer fails to prevent the power and a single reaper dies. The other
powers fail to be cast.

Eldar turn 1

Not willing to let the warp spawn live the farseer casts prescience on
the dark reapers, fortunes them and guides the warp spiders. The spiritseer
casts conceal on the reapers. I move the wave serpents away from the princes
and the prism. The warp spiders move in range of the toughest prince as he’s
the closest daemon.

Shooting starts with the dark reapers on the prince with the book,
they get a few hits and manage to take 2 wounds of it, he stays in the sky
though. The hawks then shoot into the sky and while they don’t manage to wound
the prince, they do clip his wings and bring him to the ground hard, making him
lose another wound. Now on the ground the war walkers shoot at him and finish
him off, killing my first prince! Hoping to do something the spiders shoot the
high toughness prince and only get a hand full of hits even with guide. I
manage to wound him though thanks to the monofilament rule. The wave serpents
both shoot at him but thanks to the high toughness they all just bounce off him
and he doesn’t even get grounded after 3 hits. Not wanting to waste the shot
from the prism he shoots at the cultists who go to ground, I still manage to
kill 2.

Daemon turn 2

Powers again to start and both princes with iron arm get +3
strength/toughness… great. All the princes go into jump mode ready to assault
my lines.

The warp storm increases over the battle imbuing the daemons with
greater resistance, increasing their invulnerable save. Once again the daemons
attempt to cast puppet master on the dark reapers but the farseer denies the
witch, they attempt to cast smite on them, again denied. But the second smite
manages to get through and kills a single reaper (despite a 2+ cover save that
can be re-rolled!).

The princes make contact

Assault phase and a prince charges into the dark reapers, the fire
prism and the war walkers. The combat between the reapers and prince starts
with him issuing a challenge to which the spiritseer steps up. The prince
strikes first and wounds the seer 3 times, I make 1 save, re-roll the failed 2
and a single wound still makes it though killing the seer thanks to strength 8.
The reapers hold though. Prince vs Fire prism ends quickly with the prism
exploding. On the far right the war walkers manage to hold their own against the
prince as he bounces off the power field, they fail to do anything to him
though.

Eldar turn 2

Outflanking, the rangers appear on the right hand side aiming for an
objective and line breaker. Movement again is away from the princes, the
guardian serpents spread out as do the warp spiders. The wraithguard get out of
their ride and move towards the prince not in combat (who happens to be T8). The
swooping hawks jump to the sky.

The warp spiders shoot at the prince and manage to deal a single wound
to him again, reducing him to 2. Unloading the D-cannons the wraithguard shoot
at the prince and get 3 wounds, only deals a single wound to him, as he passed
2 invulnerable saves! It takes all 3 wave serpents shooting everything they
have at the prince to finally kill him.

Assault phase and the dark reaper exarch challenges the prince to
single combat and dies, but he helps the rest of the unit survive a little
longer. The prince vs the war walkers is just as dull as last turn with the
prince bouncing off the force field and the walkers fails to even hit.

Daemons turn 3

Screaming in from reserve comes the heldrake, who vector strikes the rangers
and 3 of them die, but they hold. The unit of plague bearers arrive from deep
strike onto the far left objective in my deployment zone. Again the prince
casts Iron arm and gets +1 strength and toughness.

Flames drop onto the warp spiders and 4 die to the heldrake.

Assault phase and the prince in combat with the dark reapers issues a
challenge but the farseer refuses it. The prince then murders his way though
the squad and manages to grab the farseer after all and kills him, annihilating
the squad. Prince vs war walkers and a single weapon gets ripped off a walker,
the prince is fine.

Eldar turn 3

Dropping in behind the cultists, the hawks drop their grenade pack and
kill 4 of the cultists. All the wave serpents move to see the heldrake.

Shooting and the hawks manage to take down another 2 cultists who go
to ground. The wave serpents shoot at the heldrake but only manages to score a
single glancing hit. The warp spiders miss the heldrake.

Assault phase and the combat between the prince and war walkers
carries on with nothing happeneing.

Daemons turn 4

Once more iron arm is cast but only gets +1 strength/toughness. The
meteoric decent of the heldrake explodes a guardian wave serpent, killing 5 in
the process. The prince currently not doing anything jumps onto the lascannon.

The swirling warp storm above the battle field abates for a moment,
reducing the daemons invulnerable save by 1. Shooting from the prince on
emplacement gun targets the last guardian wave serpent but it fails to
penetrate the tank. Flames from the heldrake kill off the guardians not in
their tank.

Combat and the prince again fails to get past the power fields and the
walkers manage to deal a single wound to the prince in return!

Eldar turn 4

Again taking to the sky, the swooping hawks leave the table. A warp
jump takes the warp spiders up to the cultists and the guardian wave serpent
moves up to it. Aiming to get the plague bearers off the objective, the
wraithguard serpent goes after the objective.

Combining fire, the wave serpent and warp spiders shoot at the cultist
and they go to ground, and I kill all but 1. On the left side the wraithguard
serpent manages to kill 3 of the plague bearers.

Assault phase and the daemon prince explodes a single war walker.

Daemons turn 5

The prince not in combat jumps to the sky and moves towards the wave
serpents. Flying towards the left the heldrake continues it swooping terror.

Summoning the power of the warp, the prince casts smite on the rear of
the wave serpent but it fails to do any damage. The heldrake flames the
wraithguards serpent but fails to glance.

Assault phase and the last war walker is wrecked, freeing up the last
prince to harass the elder.

Eldar turn 5

Landing next to the plague bearers bottom left, the hawks grenade them
but the shot scatters off target. The guardians get out of their serpent and
take the objective, while the wraithguard get out of their transport and get
within 3 of the bottom left objective.

Shooting from the warp spiders kill off the last cultist and the
guardians battle focus to take the objective and hopefully hold it. The hawks,
wave serpent and wraithguard kill all but 3 of the plague bearers on the bottom
left objective.

We roll to see if the game continues…

Daemon turn 6

The remaining plague bearers move forward to contest the objective in
the bottom left corner. The prince in the middle goes towards the guardians
while the other goes into the middle of the table. Swooping to the left the
heldrake moves to harass the wraithguard.

Slaanesh appears and takes a single wraithguard back to the warp with
him/her/it, as he gets a single rend. Carrying on attacking the wraithguard,
the heldrake flames them and kills a single model. A prince casts smite on the
warp spiders but they manage to deny the witch, the other prince casts smite on
the guardians and they take a single wound.

Assault phase and the top prince charges into the guardians, they fail
to hit him with overwatch and lose 4 of their number. The daemon proves too
much of a match and they fail to wound him, but they hold.

Eldar turn 6

I don’t move much, just the guardians wave serpent faces the plague bearers
on the top left objective. The wraithguard move towards the objective.

Shooting from the wraithguard, hawks and wraithguard serpent shoots
down the rest of the plague bearers on the bottom left objective. The guardians
serpent shoots at the top plague bearers and kill the closest two, who are on
the objective.

Assault phase and the prince finishes off the guardians in combat.

We roll again…

Daemons turn 7

With this being the last turn, the prince who just killed the
guardians goes after the rangers while the other goes for line breaker. The
heldrake goes after the wraithguard.

A prince casts puppet master on the wraithguard and one of them shoots
at the wave serpent, causing it to explode. Flames from the drake spew forth
onto the wraithguard and kill 2, leaving 1 left alive!

Assault phase and the prince next to the rangers attempts to charge
them but with a double 1, he fails to charge them.

Eldar turn 7

The hawks jump over the ruins towards the remaining plague bearers and
combining their shots and wave serpent I take them off the objective.

That was a very close game, if it had ended turn 5, I would have won
10-4, if It had ended turn 6, it would have been 7 – 4, but no, it ended turn 7
reducing my score. Haha unfortunate but nothing I can do about it. I think I
made the right decisions in the game, as having that many flying things on the
table reduced what I could do. I got very lucky with the war walkers holding up
a prince the majority of the game and being able to gun the other 2 down.

More so I was very happy with how I performed in the tournament over
all, and having 2 victories and only 1 loss (which was to the winner of the
tournament). I expected to come dead last and I didn’t, this was mainly to
facing a soft list game 1, and managing to scrape a victory game 3. Game 2
ended exactly how I though all my games would go.

Anyway after everything was totalled up, i finished 8th place
overall, which out of 24 people, made me feel maybe im not all bad. Granted I did
use elder but hell I struggled with the last codex enough, I earned it. I have
walked away from the tournament with a few little ideas which I will share with
you in future, but for now that’s this tournament wrapped up. Maybe I will
attend another one soon. We shall see.

I hope you enjoyed my little series of posts about the 1850
tournament, any feedback, please let me know.

4 comments:

I was getting worried when you focussed your entire army at the helldrakes on turn 2 (as you list didn't seem to take the tools to deal with it), but after that you just took the pain from the helldrakes and focussed on the rest of the army, and I thought you played it very well.

The only thign in this game I would have done differently was shoot at the Daemon Prince who just wiped the Reapers out instead of the Helldrake. He was on the ground and much easier to kill. In some regards, he was more of a threat as well.

Overall, great job! 8th place is very good for only your second tournament. Look forward to post-tournament thoughts! Congrats!